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Page 50
At the same time it is proper that some suggestions should follow
this brief record. The asparagus bed should be in well-drained
soil; for while the plant will grow on wet land, it will start
late, and our aim is to have it early.
Again, with asparagus as with nearly everything else, the deeper
and richer the soil, the larger and more luxuriant the crop.
Listen to Thompson, the great English gardener: "If the ground has
been drained, trenched, or made good to the depth of THREE feet,
as directed for the kitchen-garden generally [!], that depth will
suffice for the growth of asparagus." We should think so; yet I am
fast reaching the conclusion that under most circumstances it
would in the end repay us to secure that depth of rich soil
throughout our gardens, not only for asparagus, but for everything
else. Few of the hasty, slipshod gardeners of America have any
idea of the results secured by extending root pasturage to the
depth of three feet instead of six or seven inches; soil thus
prepared would defy flood and drought, and everything planted
therein would attain almost perfection, asparagus included. But
who has not seen little gardens by the roadside in which all the
esculents seemed growing together much as they would be blended in
the pot thereafter? Yet from such patches, half snatched from
barrenness, many a hearty, wholesome dinner results. Let us have a
garden at once, then improve it indefinitely.
I will give in brief just what is essential to secure a good and
lasting asparagus bed. We can if we choose grow our own plants,
and thus be sure of good ones. The seed can be sown in late
October or EARLY spring on light, rich soil in rows eighteen
inches apart. An ounce of seed will sow fifty feet of drill. If
the soil is light, cover the seed one inch deep; if heavy, half an
inch; pack the ground lightly, and cover the drill with a good
dusting of that fine compost we spoke of, or any fine manure. This
gives the young plants a good send-off. By the use of the hoe and
hand-weeding keep them scrupulously clean during the growing
season, and when the tops are killed by frost mow them off. I
should advise sowing two or three seeds to the inch, and then when
the plants are three inches high, thinning them out so that they
stand four inches apart. You thus insure almost the certainty of
good strong plants by autumn; for plants raised as directed are
ready to be set out after one season's growth, and by most
gardeners are preferred.
In most instances good plants can be bought for a small sum from
nurserymen, who usually offer for sale those that are two years
old. Strong one-year-olds are just as good, but under ordinary
culture are rarely large enough until two years of age. I would
not set out three-year-old plants, for they are apt to be stunted
and enfeebled. You can easily calculate how many plants you
require by remembering that the rows are to be three feet apart,
and the plants one foot apart in the row.
Now, whether you have raised the plants yourself, or have bought
them, you are ready to put them where they will grow, and yield to
the end of your life probably. Again I substantiate my position by
quoting from the well-known gardener and writer, Mr. Joseph
Harris: "The old directions for planting an asparagus bed were
well calculated to deter any one from making the attempt. I can
recollect the first I made. The labor and manure must have cost at
the rate of a thousand dollars an acre, and, after all was done,
no better results were obtained than we now secure at one-tenth of
the expense."
If the ground selected for the bed is a well-drained sandy loam,
is clean, free from sod, roots, stones, etc., I would give it a
top-dressing of six inches of good barnyard manure, which by
trenching or plowing I would thoroughly mix with the soil to the
depth of at least two feet. If the ground is not free from stones,
roots, and sod, I should put on the manure, as directed, in the
autumn, and begin on one side of the prospective bed and trench it
all over, mingling the fertilizer through the soil. The trencher
can throw out on the surface back of him every stone, root, and
weed, so that by the time he is through there is a sufficient
space of ground amply prepared.
On all soils except a wet, heavy clay I prefer autumn planting.
During the latter part of October or early November put in the
plants as explained above, or else make a straight trench that
will give room for the spreading of the roots, and leave the
crowns between three and four inches below the surface. Then level
the ground, and cover the row with a light mulch of stable-manure
as you would strawberries. If more convenient to set out the
plants in spring, do so as soon as the ground is dry enough to
crumble freely when worked. In the spring rake off the mulch, and
as early as possible fork the ground over lightly, taking pains
not to touch or wound the crowns of the plants. The young, slender
shoots will soon appear, and slender enough they will be at first.
Keep them free of weeds and let them grow uncut all through the
first year; mow off the tops in late October, and cover the entire
bed with three or four inches of coarse barnyard manure. In spring
rake off the coarsest of this mulch, from which the rains and
melting snows have been carrying down richness, dig the bed over
lightly once (never wounding the roots or crowns of the plants),
and then sow salt over the bed till it is barely white. Let the
tops grow naturally and uncut the second year, and merely keep
clean. Take precisely the same action again in the autumn and the
following spring. During the latter part of April and May a few of
the strongest shoots may be cut for the table. This should be done
with a sharp knife a little below the surface, so that the soil
may heal the wound, and carefully, lest other heads just beneath
the surface be clipped prematurely. Cut from the bed very
sparingly, however, the third year, and let vigorous foliage form
corresponding root-power. In the autumn of the third and the
spring of the fourth year the treatment is precisely the same. In
the fourth season, however, the shoots may be used freely to, say,
about June 20, after which the plants should be permitted to grow
unchecked till fall, in order to maintain and increase the root-
power. Every year thereafter there should be an abundant top-
dressing of manure in the fall, and a careful digging of the
ground in the early spring. Light, sandy soil, clear of stones, is
well adapted to asparagus, but should be treated on the principles
already indicated in this work. There should be no attempt, by
trenching, to render a porous subsoil more leaky. It is useless to
give the bed a thorough initial enriching. Put on a generous top-
dressing every autumn and leave the rains to do their work, and
good crops will result.
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